Technically an assembly of Hickling’s short film trilogy (L’Annonciation or The Conception of a Little Gay Boy in 2011, Little Gay Boy, chrisT Is Dead in 2012 (which he directed with Amaury Grisel), and Holy Thursday (The Last Supper)in 2013), Little Gay Boy harkens back to a time when queer cinema was joyfully blasphemous, black as night, and playfully experimental in tone and look.

The three parts are telling Jean-Christophe’s story, an initiatory journey from birth through to ultimate re-birth. He is the child of a prostitute mother whom we meet briefly, and an absent father. As an adolescent, JC experiments with his sexuality and pushes the very limits of his identity until he finally meets the father he has fantasised about all his life. Moving between violent and dream- like fantasy worlds, JC’s quest is to carve out